A (CDS) is a credit derivative contract between two counterparties where a protection buyer makes periodic payments to a protection seller, and receives a payoff if an underlying financial instrument defaults or if a company undergoes restructuring, bankruptcy, or upon the occurrence of another contractually stipulated event. The spread of the CDS is the amount the protection buyer must pay the protection seller over the length of the contract, which can be expressed as a percentage of a notional amount. For example, if the CDS spread of a company is 100 basis points, or 1.0% (1 basis point=0.01%), then an investor buying $10 million worth of protection must pay $100,000. Payments made by the protection buyer continue until either the CDS contract expires or a credit event occurs (e.g., company defaults). A higher CDS spread is a higher fee charged to protect against a company defaulting and indicates that the company is considered more likely to default by the market.